-The Hindu It has been exercised for the past 11 years, clarifies I&B Ministry The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday clarified that no “new provision” had been added to the existing law, after uproar over a provision of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, under which the Secretary of the Ministry can block public access to any information in case of emergency. “Certain misgivings...

-The Telegraph RTI body issues notice to three wings of the central govt for ‘obstruction of information and providing an evasive reply’ At 7.25pm on Tuesday, 16.23 crore Indians were using the Aarogya Setu App but the departments concerned in the Narendra Modi government have claimed in writing that they do not have any information on who created the app and they do not possess files relating to this “mandatory” tool to...

-The Hindu The arbitrary ban on 59 web services undermines legal processes and democratic norms Earlier this week, on June 29, a dramatic press release was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) directing a ban on 59 smartphone applications, many of them web services. This includes TikTok, a popular social media platform; the UC Browser, a preferred web browser for low budget smartphones; and CamScanner, which is used...

-The New Indian Express The New Indian Express has reliably learnt that many PSU banks have warned their employees of coercive action, including salary cuts, if they fail to enroll a minimum of 16 persons a day for Aadhaar. NEW DELHI: Though the jury is still out on the need for Aadhaar, public-sector banks are taking extra pains to ramp up enrolment, as dictated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology...